#in their home world…………will neku see him there…..

[qualityrain]

(insane) the only other character who stood on a high building in ddd traverse town is neku. who feels bad for tricking and selling sora out to get back home. hes literally distancing himself from sora. sora has to go up to his level to talk to him. he tells sora “what? you actually still trust me?” and “i tricked you”. sora tells him “when it mattered the most, you stood up for me”. not to be insane but that vibes like tw3wy ending……neku thinking joshua tricked him……in the end joshua did what matters (not destroying shibuya)….in ddd novel sora thinks that joshua wants a connection like him and riku but he hasnt figured out to bridge that gap….later neku stays behind to talk to joshua and calls him a friend…which makes joshua walk to his side and thank him………………….. sora closes the gap between him and neku by affirming their friendship and neku does the same for joshua….. in ddd traverse town its abt finding your partner….its about pairs….neku and shiki beat and rhyme sora and riku…..theyre lined up together and at that moment neku and joshua are standing side by side like partners……………. unwell unwell unwell unwell unwell

[gamequoteshowdown]

Quote 1: "Almost Christmas means it wasn't Christmas!" - Phoenix Wright, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney

Quote 2: ""Trust your partner"... And I do. I can't forgive you, but I trust you." - Neku Sakuraba, The World Ends With You/Subarashiki Kono Sekai

Propaganda

Quote 1: Top tier line. There is a reason why AA fans reblog this each year - Submitter/Mod Chaos, parts taken from the propaganda submitted

Quote 2: This isn't the LAST line of the game, but it's close, and it's a key line of the closing monologue. Neku has gone from one of the most insufferable misanthropic edgelord 15-year-olds in human history to a caring person looking at his home and the people in it in a new light. He has done so as a direct result of a three-week series of brutal death games played in the afterlife for the chance to come back to life. He's been forced to team up with three different people, partners who challenged his view point and forced him to grow. The second one, Joshua, was an EVEN MORE INSUFFERABLE misanthrope who nonetheless seemed to get Neku better than anyone else... and was also incredibly suspicious to the point where Neku accused him of being his killer... and sacrificed himself for Neku at the end of their week, along with Neku discovering Joshua apparently DIDN'T kill him after all. Emphasis on "apparently". At the end of the third week, Joshua comes back, completely unharmed, and drops a series of reveals where "I never said I DIDN'T kill you, tee hee" is arguably not the worst part of the murder alone. (He's also planning on destroying the city. Oh, and he's directly responsible for the brutal death games.) Then he challenges Neku to a shootout for the fate of the city, where Neku finds he can't shoot the guy. Joshua doesn't have the same problem... But then Neku wakes up on the street, alive for the first time in weeks, and the city hasn't been destroyed. We cut to a week later, where Neku addresses Joshua, pointing out how incredibly traumatizing the whole experience was, but also admitting that even so, he's grateful to have met his partners. He can't forgive Joshua for putting him through this shit, but he still trusts him. He closes the monologue by telling Joshua that he's meeting up with his new friends for the first time in a week, and asking to see him there. And then those friends call over to him, and the credits roll, and the player SOBS. - Submitter (Shout out to this person. Not only did they write these GIANT paragraphs for both of their submissions but they told me how to tag them. Thank you so much <3)

[kairithemang0]

What’s you SAF ‘the world ends with you’ AU about? The title interests me! :)

-Doc

the world ends with you is a 2008 video game about a group of teenagers who die and are forced into a game where they and their partner need to go through trials for them to return to the living. neku, the main character, spends 3 weeks in the game with 3 different partners, shiki, joshua, and beat, and he learns about the meaning of connection. lovely game, would recommend

the saf au is curt and owen both die and apart of the game is giving up the thing you cherish most. curt gives up the jacket owen gave him, while owen gives up his memories of curt. they both form a packed, and curt gives owen a big hug and believes they'll get out of this, but owen doesn't know who curt is and therefore thinks he's strange

curt pieces together that owen doesn't remember him and tries his best to keep himself sane as his partner constantly believes him to be useless due to the fact this really is just owen before meeting curt, who doesn't trust his partners too much and knows there's too much on the line to fool around, something he notices right away curt seems to do

at the end of the week their bond has grown, they're friendly, and curt's fine with it. even if owen doesn't get his memories back, it's still his owen, that love is in there somewhere. some of owen's memories of curt return, and by the end of the week they've won. it's then revealed only one of them can go home, and Curt's chosen to do so. he grabs Owen's cheeks and kisses him, promising him he'll see him soon. Owen's flustered, and says maybe he'll remember him when he gets back.

Curt waits. and waits. and waits. and waits.

He waits for weeks but owen never shows, and it's presumed dead. curt lives out the rest of his life with a bit of hope they owen will come back, and yet he never does

[flightfoot]

Chat in the movie was sassier and could be annoying but consider…

1. The movie makes a point that Adrien tries to close off his heart to people. He lost his mother at a much younger age than Show Adrien who only lost her less than a year before the series starts. So he’s had more time to become a bit prickly and put up walls. Show Adrien is still desperately trying to hold onto his positivity. But Movie Adrien is more Jaded. He’s an independent catboy who don’t need no watermelon cramping his style. I think that’s why it’s easier for him to yell at his father later on too. Movie Adrien has been dealing with the broken home crap for much longer.

2. Movie Adrichat is a bit more in line with Season 1 Adrichat. He’s more likely to express negativity even if it’s just with a facial expression. Chat Noir in season 1 is more of a sassmaster. He doesn’t go as far as movie chat, but he gets some barbs in and has more bravado. He tells Theo that he’s in charge between the two heroes in Copycat and makes muscles at Marinette in Illustrator. He pushes back against Ladybug more and tells her on more than one occasion that she’s not funny when she sasses him with a joke. When Ladybug calls about his Lourve heist asking what’s going on, he tells her if she’d been there she would know, said he was handling it himself and hung up. He pokes fun at her lucky charms multiple times. He’s salty with Plagg and makes sarcastic little comments about his dad and is generally allowed more teenagery moments that aren’t necessarily the most gentlemanly but sympathetic considering his situation. Like remember when Ladybug exposed Lila’s lie about her and the first thing he says to Ladybug in French is something like “are you insane?!” before he caught himself? 😆

I liked movie Chat because he reminded me more of Season 1 (and maybe 2?) Adrien? As Adrichat progressed in the series he lacked more personality to me. He definitely lacked some of his season 1 attitude. By Season 5, he felt really wooden to me a lot of the time. Like he still has moments of negative emotion, but there was something more dynamic about his character at first. Adrichat in Season 5 is either angry enough to kill over Marinette or sad with his tail between his legs. He used to express himself more as Chat just day to day for all sorts of reasons. He used to have a bit more edge. Doesn’t mean I want him to be an edge lord. He’s always been sweet and self depreciating too but I miss his sassier moments.

All of that to say, Movie Chat reminded me of him and lately he feels a little neutered. Though Season 1 Chat is the main Chat for me, I think I prefer Movie AdriChat to Season 5 AdriChat at this point.

True, Movie!Adrien's dealing with different things. Movie!Gabriel is a way better person and parent than Show!Gabriel, having lost himself in grief but not trying to actually hurt Adrien, merely retreating... but that's also left Adrien without a parent for a lot longer. Based on the pictures we see, I'm betting it's been around five years. He's definitely more withdrawn, he says something about that in the movie, and him wearing earbuds all the time seems to be a way of symbolizing how he's closing himself off from the outside world, like how Neku uses his headphones in TWEWY. I like how you point out that he's making himself into an independent catboy who acts like he doesn't actually need other people, like he's enough on his own - that does help to explain why he's not reaching out to Ladybug as much, why he makes himself out to be a big shot more than in canon. He's been basically alone for a long time now, so he can only really depend on himself.

2. Yeah Movie!Adrien does remind me of S1!Adrien with his expression of negativity and sass. I thought that it worked better in the show than the movie though. In the show it usually seemed to me to be bravado, his imitation of a swashbuckling hero similar to Eugene's "Flynn Rider" impression in Tangled, while in the movie, I thought he came off as a little mean to Ladybug at times, especially since he didn't have as much gentle support going on as we do in the show, whenever Ladybug's struggling.

[derekscorner]

Kingdom Hearts: Gods & Angels

Just as the name implies this is a bit of a random shower-type of thought. It's not me complaining or trying to rewrite KH either, what I'm about to describe isn't even a problem objectively.

The thing I'm about to explain is a very much "me problem" that extends to any story I invest in but if you're bored like I am let's indulge a bit.

Kingdom Hearts: Angels & Gods

You see, I have the type of brain that tries to understand the lore of something. I do not need every answer given since a story should always retain mystery but there will always be some aspect of a world I can't help but hyper-focus on.

In KH's case it's the way life & death work. Initially it was easy to assume that Hades was the de-facto end point since the Disney version of the Olympians are very much godly.

Even in their source film the gods are depicted as immortal and omnipotent over their domain. Even Hades is, in actuality, a very powerful threat both in the movie and KH series.

(you see Hades display super strength in the movie a few times in fact)

Sora always wins with the power of friendship and Hercules has literal god-tier strength so Hades isn't that threatening but to the average living being he's basically a force of nature.

Even with his keyblade and otherworldly magic Sora can't actually kill Hades. He's legitimately immortal, there is no death for him.

Then later I assumed that each world essentially had it's own afterlife. Which may still be true to some extent at the time of me writing this. The presence of Joshua in DDD solidified this idea for me for a while.

I do keep in mind (as should you) that any Square character that cameos in KH is not the same one you see in the game they appear in. Squal isn't Squal, he's Leon. Cloud isn't Cloud, he's emo Cloud in Vincent Valentines outfit. Their backstories and personalities are rewritten entirely.

Even Zack who appeared in BBS was from the world of Hercules rather than having a history shared with Cloud. The closest being we seen to having a backstory hinted to be similar to their source material was Auron but the very fact he was in Hades underworld means some obvious variation has happened there as well.

This is very important because that means the same level of alteration exists for Joshua, his reapers, and the Shibuya that Neku calls home. We know the reapers game exists, we know that a Composer exists, but the actual accuracy to TWEWY's lore isn't guaranteed.

If anything, you should assume that the Shibuya that Neku calls home in KH is basically its own thing entirely. Especially now that Verum Rex exists with a Shibuya of it's own. (it was confirmed that the two shibuya's are indeed different)

The Final Headache World

But this all changes with KH3's Final World- hell, it all changes with Dark Road from the mobile titles.

In KH3 we're shown the "Final World" the place you supposedly go when you are done. There is no tricks, there is no miracles, you are as dead as you can be.

Sora literally broke time twice to save the day and still wound up here...or you're supposed too? See thanks to Dark Road or KH4's premise it's confusing.

We know you go to this Final World if you die both in heart, body, and soul. A total demise, KH3 tells us this in-game.

We also know that "Unreality" functions as a type of afterlife for people like Sora too since Strelitzia tells us as such in the KH4 trailer.

So...where do Joshua and Hades fit into that?

According to Hades here, according to what we've actually seen, the Underworld is your death. A Kh wielder or two die (okay more) in KHDR and they do go here.

The protagonists make a deal with Hades to speak to the spirit of one such dead key kid. Soooo that just makes my brain question "why?".

What dictates these differences. On a surface level you can assume Sora and Strelitzia are in Unreality because they were kicked out of "reality". We know this is true for Sora at the very least, the world at large didn't kill him it flat out removed him from reality as he knows it for breaking time.

But the first time Sora died he went to the Final World not the Underworld. The excuse that Kairi was keeping his heart connected to life is also a stretch because Sora still went to the Final World.

She offered a way back but she did not stop his death leading him to this world.

So where does the Underworld fit into that? How does Joshua's reaper game fit into this set up? Is there even a common denominator at all?

It's possible that every afterlife is connected to the Final World but that's conjecture on my part not a fact. I only offer it because Hades is shown fully capable of summoning dead people (like Auron or the Key Kid) and Joshua has shown that he's fully capable of retrieving dead people and moving them to worlds not within his domain.

He took Neku's group to the Realm of Sleep, he left his world behind to help reconstruct them. We don't know why he did but the point is that he could.

Hades and Joshua are literally two beings that you witness working on a cosmic scale. They clearly have power over death even in worlds they don't physically live in.

Kingdom Hearts: Gods & Angels???

And you want to know the real kicker? This bothers me personally not just for these questions about death but because my brain jumps the shark to the divine.

Death is always governed by something in any religion and what I have just described is an angel based on monotheistic religion and a pagan god working on a cosmic scale.

(technically composers are more like super-reapers or lower ranked angels than true angels but Joshua has the wings so semantics)

What is bothering me is that I do not comprehend how the cosmic landscape works. I know Hades is the god of death for everyone thanks to Dark Road, even Xigbar pokes fun at Hercules for having help in "high places". The Olympians in KH effect the universe as a whole.

But...Joshua exists and so does he. Do the gods just pick worlds to personally run? Do they make them? Between Joshua and the church in Notre Dome how do pagan gods like the Olympians or even Callisto from Pirates of the Caribbean fit in?

It's these kind of questions that my mind wanders too in KH and any story. I want to know, it bothers me that there's no concrete law.

Hell, I bet you even forgot that Davy Jones Locker was in KH3, it's an after life as well! Calisto is barely shown in KH3 but she's there, she's a sea goddess.

I didn't forget but I don't know where they all fit.

There is no answer for any of this and honestly it would be wiser from a writers standpoint to not try and do so. I just needed to rant about it for a bit.

I hope you enjoyed this trip through my insanity, I hope that I cured your boredom and never forget; this is a very me problem.

[ayahachitwister]

Heya! I came to say hi & ask a fellow writer something! So earlier this morning, I was reading your worst encounters Neshiki Fic. (Adorable & made me almost tear up) I’ve been wondering, as someone who also loves to write, what is the fix you’re most proud of & had the most fun writing? I thought be fun to ask this since writing is, forever, gonna take over my brain! XD plus, I like hearing people talking work they’re really proud. Never fails to make me smile. ^^

:D Aww, thank you! That one took some effort to come together, so I’m really glad you liked it so much~

For the fic I’m most proud of and had the most fun writing, I mean, I’d have to say the most obvious one—The World Ends With Witches. I know I’ve talked about how I was hooked on writing with the Hex Cait battle and did like 3 chapters in one day… but even with the recent stuff, though I’ve been slow, I’ve been so excited to finish it and show everyone. 💕 I love the way that story’s coming together, and there’s still so much with the adventure to come that has me excited—so I hope you all enjoy it, too~ :D Plus, the world building’s been a lot of fun, and just… Honestly, as much as I love all my one shots, the type of story TWEWW is honestly hits more along the lines of what I usually like to do with my original works. The mix of a building a huge mystery with subtle hints, taking you through twists and turns as the characters develop and learn more, deep world building, along with fighting, humor, friendship, romance—all of that together in one magic-filled package feels like home to me. 💕

But, since that one is kinda the most obvious answer I could give, I’ll also give you an answer that doesn’t include that one.

For most proud, I’d say Crossing the Stars. I really wanted to bring the magic of Tanabata and its celestial myth to life with that one, and I still love the way it came out 💕 I even made Kazea fangirl over the kiss in that one when she was editing >.>~ I had to do a lot of research, too, on the general area it was in and special ways they decorate for Tanabata. Like you can see the sea of lanterns at the Zojoji Temple here and the Tokyo Tower decor here. So yeah, I really wanted to bring those images to life in a romantic way for Neku and Shiki’s first Tanabata together~

For most fun… That’s a hard one. I always have fun writing them ‘cause of how silly and ridiculous all the characters are 💕 Like even in serious stories, there’ll still usually be some light teasing and quips that I always want to share way before I should >.>’’ So we’ll go with…~

I Want To Be Your Canary. I loved exploring how the characters would be in the world of Final Fantasy 9, especially with Shiki as a runaway princess in Garnet’s role 💕 And by centering the story around the play and Shiki’s escape, I got to have fun with a wide array of characters in those new roles~ I had fun selecting who’d be what character in this world, which left me with an interesting set-up since apparently Shiba’s leading an acting troupe with Neku, Eiji Oji, and Tsugumi. XD’’ Plus Souma—Kazea’s version of Neku’s dead best friend. While I have written him alive in flashbacks before, it was nice finally getting him interacting fully as himself with the group~ (Though really, he’d make a much better Zidane than Neku since he’d actually do the dumb pick up lines, but whatever >.>’~ Blank still fits for him… considering yeah.)

But I also want to make a mention of one that’s not published yet—Eri’s Guide to Love and Dating. It’s my first BeatEri fic, and I really had fun exploring that~ Though they’re not a couple yet in it, I still tried to bring some of the same romantic magic I had in Crossing the Stars, but instead of celestial magic, this one’s full of snow-filled wonders~ So yeah, it was a ton of fun to research and write, so when I finally edit and publish that one, I hope you enjoy watching as Eri tries to recreate romantic cliches for Neshiki and Rindoka—only to find some happening with her and Beat instead >.>~

[odysseys-blood]

We need to talk about how The World Ends with You is probably the game with the most coherent ludo narrative in both gameplay and story.

TWEWY had two mechanics that reinforce the themes they have, which were translated better in NEO than on the ports, which was that you have to trust your partner. Even when Neku, Shiki, Beat and Joshua had basically cast away trusting on others the battle mechanics make you do it. You can play the game with the partner playing automatically but on higher difficulties or in order to get better ranks? You have to control both characters, in order to play better both characters have to play in perfect harmony. Which is one of the things I will give NEO which was translating that perfectly into a team of six characters controlled by one single control.

The second, and a very interesting one, is the resting mechanic... not playing the game does reward you! To the point that the mechanic of leaving the game to rest also rewards the player! The game outright says: "Hey, go out! Go walk and meet some people, maybe someone else likes this game too!" with that mechanic where it connects with others DS consoles.

The game actively tells you via its mechanics that trusting others and making friends is the way. Every single thing on that game reinforces the themes and narratives it wants to tell and literally no other game has ever and probably will never.

literally twewy is like. the specialest game ever to me. im gonna split up my thoughts into 2 parts to match u also:

1) Partners/Teams

i think u can literally take the idea of being the player as not playing as the main character, but as being the witness of their world. my favorite thing abt the ds battles will always be the way it reinforced the fact that you and your partner are dead and coping with that but also if you look at it a different way then you can think of it as being a representation of relationships in general. neku can never see his partner in battles because they're in separate zones but he can trust that they're there with and for him. just like friends in real life even if you havent physically spoken yet or its been a while or even if you parted 5 minutes ago because you have to go home they're still with you holding your heart in their hands. no matter what your partner(s) are with you and they will support you even with it being an unseen connection

2) Forming Connections

sadly i got physical twewy in like....what 2014? so i couldnt really utilize the function to go out and use the spot pass function (was it even called that still? also sad that the switch doesnt have it) but even then it was still a push. it makes you WANT to go out and make new friends amd see the world and even if nothing significant happens you're alive and you got some fresh air and you saw the clouds in the sky and thats a perfectly fine way to expand your world also. because you're not going to appreciate any of that if you dont take the time and take a chance to see it for yourself. and even if you do go out alone and you dont make a personal connection theres a garuntee someone saw you. and if it becomes routine even if you never speak you are still now a part of someone elses world and they'll notice you when you walk by

[voicefromthecorner]

32. Conductor Battle #1

Original Song: Cabinet Battle #1

Neku and his friends confront the Conductor, Megumi Kitaniji, on their way to facing the Composer, but he has a few tricks up his sleeve.

You know, in hindsight, I don’t think I enjoyed photoshopping these little displays together all that much. Still, it had its moments, like customising that laughing possessed Shiki sprite, which looks incredibly cursed up close.

This song is one that I keep kicking myself for not thinking to do from the start. It’s such an obvious fit that tackles a fairly important event and even has a corresponding second song that I already used for the second similar event yet for some reason it never occurred to me until after I’d done all the others. Washington On Your Side at least had a broad range of potential applications and I was considering using it exclusively for Reaper characters at one point but this one was a no-brainer that proved I have no brain.

First Song: Neku Sakuraba

Previous Song: The Composer On Your Side

Next Song: Hurricane

Index

Transcript:

[HANEKOMA] Ladies and gentlemen, you coulda been anywhere in the world tonight, but you’re here with us in the Shibuya River. Are you ready for a Conductor showdown???

The issue on the table: Neku and his friends’ plan to usurp the role of Composer and bring everyone back to life. Megumi, he has the floor now.

[MEGUMI] The Composer’s concern is mankind’s happiness. He stands for that ideal; He wouldn’t settle for less Of His noble care, He declares how to lead ‘em You dare to think you’d fare? You can’t beat ‘em

[REAPERS] Oww!

[MEGUMI] But you children forget Your plan would have you freely pay off every debt Now, place your bets as to whom that benefits: The egotists in power where you intend to sit

[BEAT] Not true!

[MEGUMI] Ooh, if the shoe fits, wear it You serve only yourselves— Why don’t you just declare it? Fools! To think you’d gain from His Game? You can’t beat Him; you’re not even on the same plane

The Composer is driven by boundless love He redeems. You just seek a higher view from above The self-centred toll for such absolute control Is a short-sighted goal that serves the sole few and not the whole

A droll waste of time, Soul on the line To even meet One so divine would be far over the line The Composer is the shepherd of humanity’s future Imagine what would happen if it was left to you butchers

[HANEKOMA (REAPERS)] Thank you, Conductor Kitaniji (That's my Conductor!) Rebellious Ex-Players, their response

[BEAT] Yo Shades. Those words o’ yours sure sounded pretty Welcome to the real world, we’re fixin’ a broke city Yo you wanna join us, or stay chillin’ Makin’ whoever do your biddin’ like some second-rate villain?

[SHIKI] If we save Rhyme from death, the time we spent Just trying to get home is finally all ours to own How are we not so owed? I was victoriously made a loan After all we fought for? The Composer should get overthrown

[NEKU] He says the word and you roll over. Hey Rover! Your master’s will is making us all stand still “Driven by boundless love, He redeems.” Yeah, keep rolling We know what he’s actually controlling.

[BEAT] An’ anotha’ thing, Mr. Age of “Enlightningment” Don’t lectcha' us about the Game: you didn’t fight in it! You think I’m scared a’ you, man? We almost died in those zones While you were here getting high on your own

[NEKU] Conductor Megumi, why can’t you see what you’re doing? Can’t see through me—without the Composer who would you be? Composer, he's too long unopposed, sir, we're his disposers Anyone'd be better than that mind-controlling poser

[BEAT] We gon’ take him down in two hits Hey, turn around, bend over, I’ll show you Where my shoe fits

[MEGUMI] You see? That self-serving rubbish is the root of all pain! You will be made to submit to the Composer's will. Observe!

[SHIKI] Argh!

[NEKU] Shiki!

[MEGUMI] Now we play for keeps

[MEGUMI/SHIKI] Now we play for keeps

[MEGUMI] Aha-ha-ha ha!

[MEGUMI/SHIKI] The Composer has to rebuild Shibuya and now we play for keeps

[MEGUMI] Such a blunder sometimes it makes me wonder why I even bring the thunder

[SHIKI] Why he even brings the thunder…

[BEAT] You gotta get ya head in the game!

[NEKU] I’m sorry, but how, when Shiki's free will has been claimed?

[BEAT] Yo man, girl be tryin'a kill us, we got no choice

[NEKU] So we let our friend get used to speak with this guy's voice?

[BEAT] What can we do?

[NEKU] First, we'll see this through. Let's take out Shades!

[MEGUMI] Ugh, I see now why he picked you...

[NEKU] We beat Shades but Shiki's still fighting, that’s a nonstarter

[BEAT] Winning was easy, yo, but saving her’s harder Forgive me Shiki, but...

[NEKU] Don't! We need to destroy that pin!

[BEAT] Behind you, stupid! Look out for them dolls!

[NEKU] Argh! What just happened?

Beat and Shiki are out cold; that red skull pin's been played. How could Hanekoma use us in this way!?

So…

One last fight, and then it’s over. Now it’s just me and the Composer

[gamequoteshowdown]

Quote 1: "That's it. I'm not paying one cent of my taxes!" - Ema Skye, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney

Quote 2: ""Trust your partner"... And I do. I can't forgive you, but I trust you." - Neku Sakuraba, The World Ends With You/Subarashiki Kono Sekai

Propaganda

Quote 1: Underrated line said by my favourite character. She was so real for that - Submitter

Quote 2: This isn't the LAST line of the game, but it's close, and it's a key line of the closing monologue. Neku has gone from one of the most insufferable misanthropic edgelord 15-year-olds in human history to a caring person looking at his home and the people in it in a new light. He has done so as a direct result of a three-week series of brutal death games played in the afterlife for the chance to come back to life. He's been forced to team up with three different people, partners who challenged his view point and forced him to grow. The second one, Joshua, was an EVEN MORE INSUFFERABLE misanthrope who nonetheless seemed to get Neku better than anyone else... and was also incredibly suspicious to the point where Neku accused him of being his killer... and sacrificed himself for Neku at the end of their week, along with Neku discovering Joshua apparently DIDN'T kill him after all. Emphasis on "apparently". At the end of the third week, Joshua comes back, completely unharmed, and drops a series of reveals where "I never said I DIDN'T kill you, tee hee" is arguably not the worst part of the murder alone. (He's also planning on destroying the city. Oh, and he's directly responsible for the brutal death games.) Then he challenges Neku to a shootout for the fate of the city, where Neku finds he can't shoot the guy. Joshua doesn't have the same problem... But then Neku wakes up on the street, alive for the first time in weeks, and the city hasn't been destroyed. We cut to a week later, where Neku addresses Joshua, pointing out how incredibly traumatizing the whole experience was, but also admitting that even so, he's grateful to have met his partners. He can't forgive Joshua for putting him through this shit, but he still trusts him. He closes the monologue by telling Joshua that he's meeting up with his new friends for the first time in a week, and asking to see him there. And then those friends call over to him, and the credits roll, and the player SOBS. - Submitter (Shout out to this person. Not only did they write these GIANT paragraphs for both of their submissions but they told me how to tag them. Thank you so much <3)

[demifiendrsa]

NEO: The World Ends with You details Coco, Eiji Oji, Eiru, Ken Doi, and Ryoji, side quests, team battles, Pig Noise, and more Pin-related systems

■ Story

As Rindo progresses through the Reapers’ Game, he starts having visions—fragmented flashes of incidents that may soon occur. In one such vision of the future, he sees a ghastly sight: the entire city of Shibuya, crumbling into dust…

Is this an unavoidable outcome, or can Rindo change the fate of the city?

—Are the Shinjuku Reapers—whose own home was recently destroyed—in any way involved with Shibuya’s impending doom?

■ Characters

Coco (voiced by Kitana Turnbull in English, Marika Kouno in Japanese)

“You have no friggin’ idea what I’ve been through to get here, you festering sack of garbage!”

A Reaper girl who does as she pleases, spending most of her time in Harajuku. She has little interest in her Reaperly duties, sometimes even wandering outside Shibuya. Despite her delicate appearance, she is actually quite cunning, deceiving others to help get her way—but she remains deeply loyal to her friends.

She was with Neku and Beat when a certain post-Game incident occurred three years ago.

Coco reinvented herself after the last Game… on the surface, at least.

—Coco in The World Ends with You: Final Remix.

—Coco in NEO: The World Ends with You.

Eiji Oji

“This flower’s almost as lovely as you ladies—almost.”

A top influencer who blew up a few years ago thanks to his nonchalant charm and half-hearted demeanor. Recently, he has taken the world’s young generation by storm with his calm and lazy attitude.

Eiru

“Why do I have to sound so different from everyone else?”

A popular streamer who charms his audience with his unique, high-pitched voice. He only grew comfortable with his voice thanks to Eiji Oji, however, and now hopes to collaborate with him someday…

Ken Doi

“I’m gonna make a curry that’s all my own!”

Although he previously ran a ramen joint, a few twists and turns led him to shift his focus to curry. He is currently trying to rebrand by opening a new restaurant: SPICY CURRY DON.

Ryoji

“Hey, you’re just in time!”

Shibuya’s handyman who undertakes any task imaginable, from the unbelievably simple to the unspeakably seedy. Born with a strong “sixth sense,” he is deeply connected to the UG.

The game also features a colorful cast of supporting characters—including some familiar faces!

■ System: Imprinting

Use Imprinting to sway people’s actions!

While Rindo and the gang can’t directly interact with the denizens of Shibuya, they can “imprint” keywords in people’s heads to change their minds and influence their actions. If you can’t find a path forward, try getting someone else to forge a path for you!

—Scan people’s thoughts and chat with your teammates to produce new keywords.

—Combine keywords that will resonate with your target and imprint a new idea.

■ Side Quests

In Shibuya, you may also come across people who are facing problems or worries. While side quests aren’t related to the missions posed in the Reapers’ Game, you’ll be able to earn various benefits through helping the people you meet.

—In addition to Imprinting, use Fret’s “Imprint” and Nagi’s “Dive” Psychs to solve people’s problems.

—Depending on the situation, you may need to interact with the Reapers or members of other teams!

—When an issue is resolved, the Social Network is updated, and you may be eligible to obtain a reward.

■ Team Battles: Six-Person Combat

Frenzied Combat with Up to Six Party Members

Up to six characters can join the fray at one time! Even if you press buttons randomly, you’ll still be able to experience flashy and exhilarating battles with psychs flying all over the place.

But of course, that’s not the only way to enjoy combat: unleashing each psych at just the right moment will allow you to string together slick combos and tap into a whole new level of strategy. Skillfully align your entire party to topple your foes in battle!

Chain Battles

Combat will begin shortly after you come into contact with a Noise symbol, but you can string together several encounters by touching multiple symbols in short succession. The more battles there are in a chain, the higher the item drop rate, which will earn you more pins. Beware, though: the longer the chain, the stronger enemies’ attacks will become as you proceed.

—By unlocking rewards on the Social Network, you can increase the number of chain battles as well as gain the ability to draw in Noise symbols from far away.

—Your team’s HP will carry over from round to round, so try not to take too much damage!

■ Noise

Among the enemies you will face, some will prove rather tricky to take down, splitting themselves in two or going temporarily invisible.

The Pig Noise are among the trickiest of these foes: each type requires a different strategy but poaching these pigs will earn you a handsome reward!

—Some Pig Noise are easy to defeat, while others are only susceptible to psychs of a certain affinity, or only vulnerable under specific conditions.

—Pig Noise will flee from battle if you don’t defeat them before time runs out, so quickly uncovering their weakness is key!

■ Pins

Make Full Use of Special Pins

Among the psych pins you will discover, there are “Uber” pins that boast incredible power, as well as sets known as “Pin Ensembles” that activate special abilities when equipped together. Use them well and take your Game to the next level!

—Uber pins are too powerful to be wielded in great numbers—but you can equip more once you reap some rewards on your Social Network.

—Pin Ensembles can be equipped by any character. Some ensembles only require two pins for the effect to kick in, while some may require as many as six pins.

Evolve Pins to Make them More Powerful

Pins will level up as you obtain EXP through battles, and some may even evolve into new pins once their level is maxed out. When pins evolve, their basic stats improve, offering more power and faster reboots. Try enhancing a variety of pins and uncover the secrets of evolution!

—Some pins will only evolve under certain conditions. See if you can evolve ’em all!

In the Snipeline

A pin that will fire “Homing Rockets,” a series of missiles that chase after your enemies. Change targets while charging to lock onto multiple foes.

Heartful Hot Dog

A pin that activates “Protective Field,” a barrier that temporarily nullifies incoming attacks while damaging any enemies it touches.

Raven

A pin that unleashes “Patrol Rounds,” a flock of bird-like boomerangs that fly toward your enemies before returning back to you.

NEO: The World Ends with You will launch for PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch on July 27, 2021 worldwide, followed by PC via the Epic Games Store in Summer 2021.

[uncanny-fellow]

Something I've wondered too, is if Neku seems so much blander to people bc we can't see what he's thinking anymore. In twewy he had extensive dialogue in his head, taking in his surroundings and wondering and theorizing about things, expressing fear and sadness, a lot of his snarky and sarcastic comments were not spoken aloud either, especially in the first few days. (Obviously he did say a lot of them out loud too, but not everything.)

As far as I can recall (and I could be wrong?) we don't get to read his thoughts in any cutscenes in neo. So we're only seeing the things that a now older, more mature — and probably deeply affected in some way from his long time alone — Neku deems acceptable to say out loud. And he's only there for three days, during which he's surrounded mostly by strangers and is as busy as the rest of them trying to save Shibuya during an increasingly tense course of events. Not a lot of time to see the full extent of his personality, especially given that he's not the protagonist in this game.

neo twewy spoilers //

thinking about how a lot of people seem surprised by nekus personality in neo and i do get it bc it is like immediately noticeably different but personally it makes SO much sense to me, as someone that has gone through a very similar progression in personality/behavior. neku is now this interesting mix of way more at peace and also so so broken and im like haha same

[dittydipity]

the twewy anime has made a number of changes from the game beyond the pacing in terms of added and rewritten scenes, but what i appreciate the most are the tonal shifts for almost everything regarding joshua. they’ve given his character the depth that we didn’t get to see in the game - actually showing us instead of implying everything through the secret reports. with how crucial his role is in the whole story, it’s something i found kind of lacking in the game so seeing it in the anime has been a treat.

i’m gonna go a bit into the scene near the end of episode 6 (the end of w2d5) since i haven’t really seen anybody mention much about it yet. before, this was an exchange i’d always brushed past as joshua just being a provocative bastard, but with the freedom of animation and voice acting to portray more expressions, the same lines have taken on some different undertones ↓

the game:

in a way josh is also playing to live again - he's playing for the kicks because he wants to feel alive again. he's physically “alive” but emotionally he's not, all the other players are just the other way around. for joshua that’s just minor technicalities and it’s all the same to him. simple. from his expressions, his words are patronizing, he’s explaining something that to him is obvious, and neku’s rightful anger only amuses him further.

when neku finally snaps and accuses joshua of killing him, josh teases neku and then pulls out what are probably some of the most infuriating lines in the game:

those shots really just speak for themselves. it’s a continuation of what he’s already doing, provoking neku for his amusement because this silly boy’s reactions are just so fascinating to watch. it doesn’t seem like there’s much else going on here - josh maintains the same attitude for the whole scene. if there’s any other meaning or underlying sentiment, he’s giving absolutely no sign of it.

the anime: neku’s lines and presentation are almost exactly the same, but joshua’s...

he’s actually surprised and mildly taken aback at neku’s outburst, and from his tone of voice and slightly more wide-eyed, open expression, there’s something more candid about his words here.

and this time, it’s phrased as a question - “isn’t it a good deal?” as opposed to “you still get something out of this”. he’s providing neku an opportunity to respond when in the game, he was simply stating what he saw as facts and neku would cut in with objections. here, it’s almost like he’s opening up for discussion to get a look into neku’s world when game!josh had no such desire and closed himself off from what neku, or anyone else, actually thought by projecting his own words/motives into other people’s actions. here, he’s making an attempt to understand. kind of.

joshua isn't even really trying to be a dick when he says this. he seems genuinely somewhat confused at neku being so upset. josh has alienated himself from how humans usually view the weight of death and seeing neku make such a big deal about it is kind of forcing him to consider how others see things.

which leads to this next part, when neku pulls out the “you killed me!”:

there’s a very distinct lack of the incredibly mocking “aww, neku. i thought you said you didn’t remember! you sneaky little thing.” that followed the accusation in the game. instead, josh just kind of pauses and gauges neku’s emotions in a weirdly calculating moment of silence. and then “so what if i did?”. his face is still more open than we’re used to seeing. compare the body language as well - here, he’s got his hand out in an almost offering gesture while the game has him turn away with a sly expression and a hand blocking himself off. my point is that when he asks this question of “so what if i did kill you?” in the anime, it seems like it’s at least partly sincere and there’s some genuine puzzlement.

it really strikes home that josh's morals and sense of.. everything has lost some of its humanity. he doesn't see death as a threat or anything actually meaningful because from the viewpoint of the higher planes, death doesn't mean anything besides a change in a being's soul code, and those of the higher planes can just change that to whatever they want anyway. why does it matter who killed someone? it was just a means to get neku into the ug. so neku's freaking out over being dead and joshua being alive and joshua, having forgotten the value of what all that means to a normal human, is just "ah right, people usually care about that sort of thing” but doesn’t really get it.

and joshua doesn’t like not knowing things. he’s been forced to face and reflect on how disconnected his status as composer has made him from everyone else. he doesn’t like the position he’s basically put himself in.

so he picks up that his questions have only been making neku angrier and sees it as an out:

only now does he fall back on his usual tactic (defense mechanism?) of deflecting from his own lack of understanding and connection to others by being a dickwad, slipping the flippant dismissal back into his voice, closing off his expression to nothing but smugness, and following up with questions he knows will rile neku up even further to distract himself from his lapse into something uncomfortably sincere. of course, neku’s understandably caught up in his frustration and anger and misses the quick flips in joshua’s attitude, taking the whole conversation as joshua being a smug bastard.

i’ve been viewing the anime and the game as alternate/parallel universes and it’s almost like anime!josh hasn’t been composer for as long as game!josh yet when this all goes down, so his facade isn’t as practiced and his real emotions (or lack thereof) slip through more often.

on a more lighthearted note,

neku: YOU killed me! joshua: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

will never not be funny

yeah. episode 6 good.

[goldensunset]

i love Joshua from TWEWY cuz they don’t even try to make him a sympathetic guy like every other twist villain in the history of all media everywhere. he’s just a prick. he’s incredibly suspicious from the very beginning. he makes no effort to hide it but insists you go along with whatever secret scheme he’s planning.

it’s not even a surprise when he turns out to be a bad dude. his personality doesn’t suddenly do a 180. he acts exactly the same for the duration of the whole story. he’s not even ashamed of what he does. he’s like ‘and so what if i did kill you? get over it cuz we’ve still got work to do. we’re partners in this : D’ it’s so irritating it’s funny and actually makes him more likeable. 

soooo many of these characters are drenched in tragic backstory and fake charm but they just commit atrocities while claiming they’re justified because they’re sad or something. sometimes the morally gray characters are actually the worst and they’re such abusive sadboys they’re insufferable (yes this is an indirect at Akechi from P5 don’t @ me)

Joshua on the other hand is just totally the worst but he’s actually enjoyable to interact with cuz they don’t try to make him something he’s not. even as a total antagonist he’s actually rather polite and can be legitimately reasoned with. 

he didn’t kill Neku for the heck of it because he craves death and destruction because he has issues or something. it was legit just part of a game for him because he was bored. a bad guy so aloof he doesn’t think twice about shooting a child dead and dragging him into a twisted survival game in the underworld, for his own entertainment, is fascinating. 

even more interesting is when you remember that he, in a way, was trying to help Neku, who hated the world and hated other people at first. Joshua doesn’t realize he had a change of heart and keeps trying to convince him how much the real world as it is sucks, and how it could be improved or destroyed. he’s just echoing Neku’s own words at him. and he has a change of heart too at the end, letting the kids go back home alive. which makes you really question his motives and morals.

hopefully we’ll see more of this guy in neo twewy cuz i’d like to know what he’s really up to.

[diverse-hearts-moved]

@crownshattered​ - Starter ~

A few months had come and gone, and though it was taking a lot of energy to simply interact with so many people again, for the most part, Neku felt as though he was doing surprisingly well, though school was quite the mess, that drained the most from him, but like always he’d just smile and bear with it. He’d been given yet another go at life, and he wasn’t about to waste it. Even if it took a lot out of him at times, he was still there for his friends, for those that leaned on him for support.

Humming slightly, he’d been laying on his bed listening to a song on his phone when it had first happened, though he passed it off as simply being more tired than normal. Things around his room seemed to shift in and out of focus, as though his imprint was vanishing from the world, snapping back into place as he sat up and stared around his bedroom, trying to calm down his racing heart. He was just tired, that’s all, and yet that uneasy feeling wouldn’t go away. 

Although tired and slightly on edge with what had just happened, when Beat messaged to let him know that the group were meeting up, he quickly accepted the invite, not only because of how strange his home could make him feel these days, but also because being around the others - usually helped.

However - today would be different. The biggest mistake he’d made was walking outside, attempting to move aside to allow a woman with a pram past him, only for her to walk through him instead.

For a few short seconds he just stood there, on some level trying to convince himself that he was just seeing things, that he’d managed to move aside, that this was all just in his head. Being almost entirely alone for three years was simply making it difficult to adjust to the world around him, that’s all, yet he’d soon taken out his phone, halfway into a message to Shiki before pausing. He didn’t want to worry any of the others, but his only other option felt as though it would only lead to more confusion. But hey, if anyone knew what was going on, it would be him, wouldn’t it?

[Neku - Josh] Have you been up....

He sighed and quickly deleted the text. No point in jumping to conclusions.

[Neku - Josh] Can we meet up? Something weird happened. Think you might know more about it

[ladysqueakinpip]

Kind of dumb, but I do have this AU where Joshua would have liked to go home after ddd but….being the only actual ya know not dreamer individual he’d still stuck in real traverse town with no map on how to get back home and even if he flew off world he be in space, with no map, wondering around getting more lost. So he’s on a mission to find Riku and hitch a ride! But of course back in shibuya, it’s a bit of a mess with the composer MIA (but not dead, so power can’t even transfer!) and everyone is looking for him but oopsie doodle he’s in ANOTHER WORLD.

Neku, knowing that Josh will show up when he wants too: 😌

Neku, when Hanekoma asks if he’s seen joshua bc he’s missing: 😨 (“How do you loose a composer?” / “he is very small.”)

I think for this AU to work the sleeping twewy characters don’t remember or we go with the theory Josh created the ones we see to be less lonely rather than them be real

thats so sad!!! ;o; i DO love joshua and riku's relationship sm tho and i would love to see a story (whether fanfic au or canon content) where they have to rely on each other. and getting a story where joshua is FORCED to depend on someone else? -chefs kiss- thats the good kush. hes usually the one with everything under control and i love to see characters out of their element

[dragonseattofu]

Spaces Between My Fingers (NEO TWEWY fanfiction)

Summary: Neshiki NEO reunion. NEO TWEWY spoilers. Everyday for two years after Neku’s disappearance, Shiki sits behind Hachiko talking to what looks like herself, her hand securely in another that she can feel but can’t see. Warnings for depression and panic attacks. Check source content for Ao3 link.

Preview:

“Great work on the presentation Misaki-san!”

“Excellent job as always Misaki-san! Have a wonderful evening!”

“See you tomorrow!”

Shiki smiled and nodded at the outpouring of compliments from her staff as they filed out of the conference room. It was her last meeting of the day, and she was exhausted. Never in a million years could she have imagined being the youngest CEO of any clothing company, much less her own brand at the age of eighteen. But, being young didn’t make the responsibilities of a trending brand owner any less tiring. On the bright side, the remainder of the evening was all hers to spend at her own pace.

With that in mind, Shiki gathered her laptop and papers under her arm, turned off the lights and closed the door behind her. She retrieved her messenger bag from the coat rack in her office, pulled the keys from the front pocket, and said a habitual goodnight into the empty space before locking the office for the night.

The soft tapping of rubber on carpet filled the empty hallway on her way to the elevator, the sounds of mindess instrumental music soothed her tired nerves on her voyage down from the eight floor. Slow clicking of gears moving, and the opening the heavy metal doors woke her from her stupor, gesturing light apologies on her way out as more bodies piled into the elevator.

Fresh air filled her lungs as she finally reached the ground level, going westward toward the neighborhood coffee shop where she’s a regular, and the barista started mixing her drink before she could even fish out her wallet. Condensation on the side of the plastic cup collected at her fingertips, leaving a wet smudge on the door as she exited, her sneakered shoes guiding her in the direction of a statue, faithfully waiting for his master that will never come.

Shiki takes a seat behind Hachiko, and looks down at her watch. 19:01. She chuckles, she’s a minute late. She pops an earbud in her ear, and rests her right hand, palm up, on the side of the seat next to her, and waits. She takes another sip of her drink, licking her lips, savoring the overly sweet beverage on the verge of crystallization.

A couple walks by talking about dinner plans, and a group of female students discussing Prince’s recent social media posts pass by as well. A shiba stops in front of her, tilting its head to the side for a brief moment, almost as if he sees something that others can’t, before his owner tugs him along.

Her breath catches and she waits for a split second before she feels a slight shift in the wind around her, an even lighter pressure on her palm. She exhaled, relishing the feel of the spaces between her fingers filling, and she smiled.

“So, I had another productive meeting today....”

She speaks for about an hour into the wind about how her day went, what her last conversation with Eri was like, even about her new not inanimate pet, Mrs. Mew. From afar, most people think she’s talking to herself, those closer assume she’s on the phone. Little do they know that they are both wrong, but that hasn’t stopped her from coming to Hachiko everyday, and speaking into the void as if she’s carrying on a conversation with a long lost friend.

She’s not exactly sure when she started doing this, but it became her way of, well, grieving. After a couple months of blissful dating, getting to know one another outside the confines of a death game, she had sort of … fallen in love.

Only for that love to be suddenly ripped from her with nothing left but a note, from a not so helpful composer. The first couple of days were devastating, she didn’t leave her bed, she wouldn’t eat, couldn’t sleep. The weeks thereafter weren’t much better. Eri, and Rhyme were constantly by her side, making sure she didn’t end up in the hospital for malnuritionment. Beat showed up soon after to smack some sense into her, mostly figuratively.

Beat slammed open her bedroom door, Eri and Rhyme trailing behind yelling at him to calm down. His usual sympathetic expression was replaced with one of impatience and frustration.

“Shiki, enough of this. Get up and go eat somethin’!”

An empty gaze was his only response. He growled, stomping into her room and ripped open the curtains, beams of sunlight showering her floor, her bed, her listless face. In the light he could see that she lost a significant amount of weight in such a short period of time. She was already lean before, now her face began to look sunken in from the starvation and constant darkness. Beat suddenly felt another overwhelming wave of emotion sweep over him.

“This is ridiculous, girl, ya can’t keep goin’ like this or you’ll…” He choked up; he didn’t complete his thought; he just couldn’t. Rhyme and Eri lunged forward to try and hold back the blonde as he grabbed Shiki by the front of her shirt, pulling their faces closer, glaring at her with an intensity he didn’t think he would ever use on her.

Her world shook as droplets fell onto Shiki’s glasses. She could feel Beat shaking from his grasp, his usually clear cerulean eyes were stormy, almost like the sky had broken. A lump formed in her throat. She forgot through her heartbreak that other people might also feel the same pain she was feeling. Sure, she was his first partner, but Beat was also his partner too.

For a tense moment nobody moved, Beat stared into Shiki’s eyes hoping to get his message across wordlessly, Eri and Rhyme holding onto Beat on both sides to restrain him. She had every right to grieve and her pain was more than he could ever imagine, but Beat needed her to know that she wasn’t alone, and that he was there for her, if she would let him. He couldn’t afford to lose her before he got the chance to save him.

Ever so slowly, Shiki moved her one hand over Beat’s. She grabbed a fistful of his jersey in her other hand. For that excruciating week, she went from feeling anxious and depressed to just numb. Now she felt relieved that there was someone else who understood this persistent gnawing ache in her chest. Brotherly simpleton Beat wasn’t being sympathetic to her heartache, but rather empathetic in her mourning.

Her face started to prickle, as the wells that had dried up started to free fall again. She moved to grab Beat, nestling her head into his chest and just … cried. He rested his large hand on her head and hugged her tightly, supporting each other in this moment of catharsis. They stayed like that until Shiki passed out again.

When she came too, Beat, Eri and Rhyme stayed with her that day to make sure she consumed something.

Sometime in the afternoon, Eri decided to attack Beat to get some measurements for a pants design. Big muscular Beat hiding behind tiny Rhyme who was doing little to nothing to protect her older brother from the teen designer wielding a measuring tape going too close for comfort to his ... particular body parts. Shiki graced them all with a smile none of them saw in days.

Big brother Beat decided to have all his meals with her that day forward. Eri said that she could handle this, and found him to be a nuisance, but he didn’t care. Slowly Shiki’s appetite and strength returned, more places ventured outward, even the whirling of her bobbins clicking could be heard throughout the house.

Everytime she had a relapse, a brief moment of chest-tightening, her breath catching, she’d reach out and Beat would be there, embracing her until the panic attack subsided.

With her good days and her bad days, Shiki decided to go back to school after taking a month of absence. Eri got her back into the sewing club, pelting her with designs to keep her busy. The distraction was helpful, almost becoming necessary.

Sometimes she’d go to the skate park, sitting on the bench watching Beat and Rhyme do ollies in front of a setting sun. She would sketch out pieces inspired by the skaters, a little black cat signature adorning each one. Rhyme uploaded some of her designs and completed outfits on a popular social media platform, and named it Gatto Nero with her permission. Sooner than later, Shiki had a following of over one thousand, then five, then over ten approaching twenty. It also helped that her best friend was an influencer and modeled everything Shiki made.

Before anyone knew it, Shiki was approached by the founder of Jupiter of the Monkey, who was impressed by her work, and offered her an intern position while she was still in school. With more tasks to keep her busy, everyday slipped by faster and faster, and the relapses became more infrequent.

A year had passed since his disappearance, and Shiki never really forgot, more so distracted herself with other things to keep her busy on a day like today. After classes, Shiki would go to her internship to work on a couple of assignments and with her last meeting with her supervisor over, she headed out to catch the train home.

She slowed her pace down when she passed the 104 building, mindlessly loitering near the window displays to check out the trends. The Scramble Crossing was busy as usual, and she found herself wandering closer and closer to the statue of Hachiko.

Shiki stared at the bronze canine, her mind drifting to the promise she made quite a long time ago. Realizing she wasn’t in a rush to go home anyway, she took a seat behind the statue.

“Well Neku,” she hesitated, having not uttered his name in almost a year, “it looks like I didn’t keep my promise to be here everyday waiting for you to come back.”

“I-I’m sorry I couldn’t be here sooner.” She could feel her anxiety bubble in her throat, like digging at a wound that had scabbed over and was threatening to bleed out again. Thinking of him was painful, but she realized then that they did have a lot of memories, wonderful, happy memories that she had forgotten in her grief. Memories that were hers to hold onto for as long as she wanted them. Shiki could feel her heartbeat slowing down, the tension in her body subsiding ever so slightly.

“I hope that you’re alright somewhere out there,” she said into the open space in front of her, “I-I miss you.”

Just then a slight touch graced her hands on her lap, but when she looked up, no one was there. The ticking of the crosswalk signs, the pattering of shoes on asphalt, and the shouts of last minute sales continued on as if time and sound hadn’t stopped for a moment. Not exactly sure what she was doing, Shiki raised her hand out in front of her, and a second later, she felt a resistance, an air of familiarity filling the spaces between her fingers effortlessly.

Shiki jumped up in surprise, her bag holding Mr. Mew clattering to the floor before whispering, “...Neku?”

An invisible thumb tapped the back of her hand lightly. She couldn’t hear him, she couldn’t see him, but she could feel him. He was probably in the UG, but for some reason, she could tell he was standing right in front of her.

She sobbed, “Is that really you ---?”

“Shiki! Why ya cryin’? What happened, yo?”

The connection was lost as Beat skated up to her, visibly concerned, looking for some clue as to why his best friend was crying in public. He pulled out a crumpled cloth handkerchief from his back pocket, a gift from Rhyme that came in handy more times than he thought it would.

Shiki continued to stare at the open space, trying to make sense of what had just happened, grasping for what she thought was remnants of a lost love, but the sensation was gone. Whatever was there, it wasn’t there anymore. Even if he was in the game, she shouldn’t have been able to touch anything in the UG. Her mind raced with different jumbled thoughts. What was that? How did that happen? Why now?

“Earth to Shiki!” Beat waved his hand in front of her, successfully snapping her out of her trance.

She looked at him, accepted the handkerchief and dried her tears. Whatever that was, talking about it would only land her another session at the doctor's office. She knew Beat would believe her, but after her long painful year of recovery that he had witnessed, she doubted he would be open to the thought of dredging that wound up again.

Shiki didn’t trust her words, so instead she reached over and hugged him. Without hesitation, Beat returned the gesture. When her sobs had subsided, he gently asked, “let’s bounce?”

In an overprotective brotherly way, he kept his arm around her shoulders after retrieving her bag from the floor.

“Yeah.”

The next morning, Shiki found the day dragging on. She was on autopilot at school, and her assignments at her internship were more clerical in nature, requiring very little brain power. Anything not immediately due would be tomorrow’s problem.

She rushed out of the office building, crossed the scramble and stopped in front of the metal statue. Shiki held her breath as she sat down exactly where she was yesterday. Her muscles tensed as she inhaled deeply.

“So I might be losing my mind, and everyone will think I’m crazy but if you are here, if-if you’re really still here, I’d want you to know that … I miss you Neku.”

For an agonising moment, nothing happened. She wasn’t really sure what she was hoping for. Was everything yesterday just her imagination? Was she just feeling sentimental and willed the tactile sensation into reality?

After a couple more minutes of fruitless imagination, Shiki was about to give up and leave when she felt something, no, someone, grab her hand. Frightened at the sudden contact, Shiki looked down to see that nothing was there, just the fortune lines on her open palm and her silver pinky ring. Yet someone was there, holding her hand in a way she hadn’t felt in so long. She smiled as her eyes began to water.

“It’s you isn’t it.” She said more confidently, though she felt nothing of the sort. A light tap on the back of her hand was her only affirmation.

“I have so many questions for you, but I’ll save them for when you get back. The only one I need to ask is w-will you be back?” She tentatively prodded the air metaphorically, hoping she hadn’t pressed her luck. Another light tap had her smiling once more.

“Beat’s going to kill you if you ever make it out of the UG. Rhyme’s not going to stop him. Eri hates your guts for leaving me.” She chuckled at that. She felt her hand move slightly, almost as if he sat down next to her. He brushed his unseen thumb over her knuckles.

A couple of people passing by looked at Shiki as if she wasn’t having a completely one sided conversation with herself in broad daylight. She honestly couldn’t care less. She rambled on about random things, hoping to catch him up on the entire year he had missed, only the good things because she wasn’t quite ready to talk about the bad ones. She would have continued well into the night if her phone hadn’t rang.

“Girl, why you don pick up ya phone? I’ve been tryin’ to reach ya for hours!” Beat shouted so loudly into her phone she had to remove it from her ear.

“Shiki, where are you?” the smaller girl gently inquired, seemingly having pulled her brother’s phone away from him before he crushed it, “he was about to call the police if you didn’t pick up.”

She could still feel their hands interlocked, but reluctantly replied, “I’m at Hachiko, Rhyme. Tell Beat I’ll text when I leave and get home.”

“Beat wait -- , nevermind he just left. We’ll come pick you up. Just stay there. See you soon!” The phone line clicked.

Shiki sighed, “Beat and Rhyme are coming to get me. It won’t be long before they show up.” She paused, wondering if she could ask what has been on her mind, if the fates were on her side today.

“I’ll promise to be here, everyday, waiting for you to get back to the RG. Until then, can you promise to meet me here, everyday, until I can see you again?” She knew this went against the rules of the game, but the game had dictated her happiness for long enough. If there was any chance of being with him, invisible or otherwise, she would take it.

Her hand moved again, this time their fingers separated, but not completely. His pinky finger wrapped around her silver ring, the same one she wore during the first game, and a new promise was made as they gently shook on it.

And then he was gone. Her hand tingled from the absence of his light touch. She thought she could see faint sparkles from where she presumed he had been sitting. When the Bito siblings found her shortly after, her dazed expression had them both worried, but then a genuine smile broke out on her face as she proposed they go have a light dinner before heading home. Rhyme and Beat looked at each other, communicating through their eyes that they had no idea what had happened, but were glad Shiki’s original spark had finally showed up all the same.

That had been two years ago, and everyday of those two years Shiki spent pretending to talk to someone on the phone instead of an apparition. Everyday for two years of updating his shadow on her daily life routine and not being able to ask him how his day went. This arrangement wasn’t perfect, but just knowing that he was alive, even if they were on separate planes, meant that there was hope she would see him again. Even as the weeks went to months, and months went to years, everyday, he would faithfully show up, and they would hold hands just to exist together behind the symbol of loyalty and patience.

“Tomorrow’s my big collaboration presentation to the executives of Jupiter. Eri and Rhyme are going to be there. We could honestly all use the distraction after what happened with Beat. Please look out for him in the UG? Times like this I really wonder what’s going on with the game now and how many people I have to lose to it before it’s satisfied…”

About two weeks ago, Beat magically disappeared. Shiki was going to his classroom to invite him to lunch with her and Eri when she saw a student in his class hand Beat a pin of some sort. They were trending for a while now, but they reminded Shiki too much of the game to want one for herself. Trauma, bad luck, she wasn’t really sure, but she wanted no part in it.

When the student handed it to Beat though, he vanished into thin air. She dropped her bento and unceremoniously ran into the classroom. Shiki demanded what just happened, when Beat’s classmate just looked at her, his eyes dilated for a second, returned back to normal, and looked surprised. She again pressed on for an answer, to which the student had no idea who or what she was talking about.

It was almost as if Beat’s entire existence was … erased. When she realized that she wasn’t getting anywhere, she ran to the first year classrooms and shouted for Rhyme. Shiki couldn’t imagine why this was happening again. She finally was able to talk to Neku again and now her pseudo brother, Beat, was missing.

Despite the inner turmoil she was feeling, Shiki had enough sense that day to ask Neku if he’d seen or heard from Beat. It was difficult to communicate when the only responses she got were taps on her hand but she managed to find out that Beat was indeed in the UG, even if Neku hadn’t seen him personally yet. Rhyme had a look in her eyes, almost as if she was looking beyond the plane of the RG and was preparing her next move. Rhyme said not to worry, she was going to track down her brother down one way or another.

For the past two weeks, Shiki had a few depressive relapses. Even though she had her coping mechanisms, her rock was gone. Rhyme was working on her military grade computer system to find Beat in the UG, and Eri helped keep her distracted with work. But it wasn’t the same. It helped that Neku was there for her everyday though, like today.

“Well that's all I have for now. Please keep on eye out for the skaterbrain, and wish me luck on my presentation,” she felt a tap on the back of her hand, “till tomorrow.”

As predicted, Shiki was a ball of nerves during her presentation, but she warmed up at least a quarter way through. It helped that she knew most of the execs from her internship days at Jupiter, and were impressed with her work. The collaboration looked promising for the coming days. Eri and Rhyme, both of her founding Gatto Nero board members, ushered her to leave for her date while they settled some details, promising to meet up with her afterward. She felt like she was on top of the world after that meeting, and was bouncing happily to the coffee shop to grab her customary celebratory drink before heading to Hachiko.

What she saw standing behind the statue made her drop her drink and had her flying across the scramble. She barreled into the boy, causing his headphones to fall into his hood. He took a step back to steady them both before bringing his arms around her.

“Hey Shik’s, did ya miss me tha much?” the blond boy flashed a mischievous grin.

“You idiot! I’m so mad at you! I’m going to sew your feet to the ground if you ever do that again!” Shiki screamed at him, throwing fists into his lean chest to demonstrate how mad she really wasn’t.

“Gah girl, when did ya get so strong?” Beat shrieked, trying to hug her again to stop her from hitting him.

“I missed ya too, now stop hittin’ me yo!” She pouted as she squeezed him tight. She had gotten so used to his hugs, she really missed them.

“I got a surprise fo ya.” He pulled away from her so she could see who was behind him.

She stopped breathing. It was like her lungs and heart decided to shut down at the same time, leaving her body to scramble on how to save the rest of her. Her hands tingled from the lack of oxygen as she stared at his face, the one that had matured, but never really changed after three years. He sported his boyish smile, not hidden behind a collar, the ones she admittedly had forgotten about but made her stomach flutter all the same.

“Hey Stalker.”

She could tell that he was nervous, the same nervous energy he had when they started dating years ago. Shiki had dreamed about what their reunion would be like, what she would do when it happened, what she imagined he would say. It wasn’t that, and she wanted to punch him for it if she could just MOVE.

But she felt paralyzed, and he was getting even more nervous from the silent treatment. There were a couple of people she didn’t recognize around them, but all she saw was Neku.

Growing impatient, Beat slapped Neku on the back so hard he fell forward, catching his balance before he could fall into Shiki. When he was close enough she reached out and grabbed his hand, with all the familiarity she had gotten used to for two years. Then he tenderly touched her face, wiping away her tears.

“I’m home.” He said gently.

She managed to mutter, “welcome home,” before he sealed his promise with a kiss she had been waiting too long to return.

OMAKE

“Phones get a room bro! We got kids ‘ere!”

“Yeah Neku-san get some!”

“We aren’t that much younger than you”

“I believe that I am older than all of you. And with that I bid you all farewell as I am in jeopardy of major spoilers. I must get the new EleStra DLC immediately!”

“Boss, wait, we got to celebrate our victory, come back!”

Notes: Full disclaimer, I haven’t finished TWEWY NEO yet, I’m starting the third week now. I’ve spoiled myself, so I sort of know what happens, but a lot of what I do know is out of context. So take this story as you will, it might not make a whole lot of sense, and might be completely off, but I’m excited that when I do finish the game, how my headcannons will have matched up! Or don’t!

That also being said, I starved myself from reading other fanfics on the Neshiki reunion because I didn’t want it to unintentionally change my headcannon and I also wanted to write without feeling like I was copying someone else’s ideas. If my story is similar to someone else’s, it’s purely because great minds think alike. An example of convergent evolution if you will. (I will be devouring those fics very soon though).

Notes regarding the story-wise: I like found family tropes, and I wanted to make it clear that Beat and Shiki’s relationship are purely brother/sister related if I haven’t already. If you have other shipping goggles on, have at it in this judgement free zone. This story was inspired by this idea I had of Shiki sitting behind Hachiko holding hands (I love hand holding. I wrote two other fanfics about that) with Neku, who is transparent being in the UG, just smiling at her while she talks about her day even though she can’t see him. The miracles of love and friendship traverse all planes right?

Anyway, if you’ve read this far, thanks for listening to my Ted Talk and I hope you enjoyed this Neshiki food I’ve haphazardly prepared in like 7 hours.